Hi,
I too have had the email from Alertme, although I have previously been offered and taken the Hive kit offer, when I logged a support call about getting more SMS credit.

Its a shame, as I had been a long time user of Alertme, since 2008, but think they lost their way a bit when they decided to focus more on the energy side instead of automation and security. When I was in contact with Alertme support I asked how many Alertme systems were still in operation, and they replied with around 500, which was a surprise to me, I thought there were only a few of us left, many this includes British Gas S&S customers too.

On the plus side, I'm loving the Hive Thermostat. Smartplug is a smartplug but good that it works with Amazons echo. However I'm a bit disappointed in the other sensors. Coming from Alertme, I'm used to the concept of modes, e.g. night mode, armed mode and the sensors behaving differently depending what mode the alertme system was in. With Hive, there is no such concept, hence I get alerted to the door sensor opening when its valid, e.g. me going into the garden. Yes you can turn off notifications, but thats a manual step in the app.

Seeing as its the same guys working on Hive as worked on Alertme, I would have thought they would have considered this.

Hope everyone finds suitable workarounds to their home automation setups.

However I'm a bit disappointed in the other sensors. Coming from Alertme, I'm used to the concept of modes, e.g. night mode, armed mode and the sensors behaving differently depending what mode the alertme system was in. With Hive, there is no such concept, hence I get alerted to the door sensor opening when its valid, e.g. me going into the garden. Yes you can turn off notifications, but thats a manual step in the app.

Huh? That's just weird. I had no idea it had no concept of Home / Away / Night modes.

I'm definitely going to look into the local control method of using AlertMe gear with a DIY hub of some description. It'll likely be reasonably basic in comparison to the full-blown AlertMe hub, but I'm aiming to at least be able to control the original SmartPlugs again - and ideally get communication working with the motion sensors.

I got the SmartThings hub and starter kit last week. I went back to buy more sensors etc and the price of everything has jumped up 30% @#&&#!

Seems PC World have a monopoly, the price on Samsung store and Amazon are the same. Cartel?

Reason for writing is, I have all those sensors and smartplugs etc from my AlertMe system, they are ZigBee as is SmartThings, surely they could work with the SmartThings hub? No that would be too easy, it is so annoying that they can just brick the whole system.

The offer from BG for a Hive system in its place is like saying, your existing car will no longer run from the end of the month, but don’t worry we will give you a tractor in it’s place with a really useful hay bailer but you won’t be allowed to drive it on public roads.

Anyone want to buy a brand new tractor/hay bailer?

I am still waiting for news of when my Hive sensor pack will arrive, communication with what remains of AlertMe is painfully slow, it is like trying to have a radio conversation with someone on Pluto. Ask a question, a week later a reply...

I was lucky today, Maplin Electronics has the Samsung gear on sale at the prices that PCWorld we’re charging earlier, which was a sale apparently. Maplin has lots of home automation stuff on display, but Samsung SmartThings at all on their displays, so it looks like they are just selling old stock and leaving the market. It’s very difficult to choose a system that is going to be around in a few years time. Even large corporations can suddenly decide to have a change of direction and just decide to close down non profitable divisions.
Small companies either go bust or get bought out and then closed down, especially if Google is involved.

Wouldn’t the AlertMe system still work even when their servers are switched off? I mean it should still work as it is now except I won’t get any notifications away from home and I won’t have an UI to change settings or check battery levels etc.

Matt, I understand that they only have 2 support staff handling all of the transition from AlertMe to Hive, and at times email replies can take a few days, then suddenly speed up.
I hope you hear something soon.

Once I did get in touch they were incredibly helpful, offering me various options in place of the Hive Thermostat which I did not need or want. As I had already bought a Samsung SmartThings hub and various sensors, I investigated and found that the Hive parts worked fine with the ST hub, so I don’t need the Hive Hub at all.

I now have 4 active plugs, 4 active bulbs, 1 motion sensor and 1 door sensor by Hive as well as their Hub.

The Hive active plugs apparently don’t act as ZigBee boosters however, though unlike the ST plugs they do have manual buttons to switch them on and off which I do like.

I am not sure if the old Smartplugs by AlertMe will still act as ZigBee boosters if just plugged in and switched on, anyone know? Do they have to be paired? I imagine they must.

I have taken them up on the offer of the hive kit. I asked via email, and they said there was no subscription to hivelive. But I will wait and see when they fix the hub / thermostat on Friday 20th Oct (might be functionality the needs sub).

I had just purchased a samsung Smarthings hub2 (just before I found the email). So I plan to invest some time into looking at getting James Saunders' code working on the Smarthings (I've been monitoring his github repo for a while).

The main thing I worry about using the smarthings hub, is that it talks proper Zigbee protocol, not Alertme version. James Saunders code sort this out by putting the zigbee mode into the correct mode (I tried it an early version on a Pi with a Zigbee modem, it work fine). I don't know if the smarthings device handler dev give me enough access to program the modem, But I only looked at it a few hours.

Now I will soon have lots of 'zigbee repeater', I can look at it more closely.

The other options I considers
- using Pi and Zigbee modem with James Saunders code to create a bridge between Alertme ZB protocol and proper ZB protocol
- using Pi and Zigbee modem with James Saunders code to create API that Alexa can drive directly.

Just to let you all know that I had my Hive system installed last week. As Noisyvoid says, there is no contract or subscription to Hive Live, so nothing extra to pay. The new thermostat is a clever piece of kit which communicates directly with the receiver attached to the boiler and can operate as a basic thermostat completely independently of the Hive Hub. The Hub is very familiar in operation being an AlertMe product inside and it obviously communicates with the thermostat and BG's servers to allow remote control.

The installation took an hour or so. The engineer replaced the wireless system I had previously on my Worcester 37CDi with the Hive receiver (which is mains powered from the boiler) and put the proper blanking plate over where the old unit went, so it's all still nice and tidy. He did all the association stuff and I paired the Hub to my Hive account using the ABC123 code on the back (remember that?).

I've actually been really impressed with the thermostat. One benefit I hadn't twigged is that you can set everything independently - so you can have different temperatures for different times of the day, not just "meet this single target whenever you're running". We have it set a couple of degrees cooler in the morning and with different schedules for days when people are routinely home. It's also a piece of cake to programme, in comparison to the old system which was so bad I never really bothered.

The extra devices are good, but a little more limited than we're used to without there being mode selection between Home, Away and Night. I'm using the ActivePlug and Door Sensor to control the lights in my loft when the hatch is opened and closed. The motion sensor I haven't found a proper use for yet; I just have that sat in a room while I think about what to do with it. The light is fine, good colour temperature - though you have to keep the light switch turned on, which is actually much less convenient and because of this we've not made any use of the dimming or remote control functions.

To make the lighting products useful they really need to develop a Hive light switch - one that keeps the ceiling pendant live the whole time and controls the lamp itself. I have no idea why so few home automation companies produce light switches and wall sockets; I would absolutely buy those and replace some existing light switches or sockets with remote-controllable versions if there were a product available. It would be much neater than the current wall-wart solution and finding your lights can't be controlled because somebody was sensible and turned them off at the wall.

The other options I considers
- using Pi and Zigbee modem with James Saunders code to create a bridge between Alertme ZB protocol and proper ZB protocol
- using Pi and Zigbee modem with James Saunders code to create API that Alexa can drive directly.

Keep in touch if you get anywhere with this. I've got an XBee S2C module and an AlertMe button which I've got so far as getting the example Hub code to scan for in discovery mode. It finds the button and reads back some useful info, but I get the feeling I have some way to go before I'm getting live button presses back to the laptop and I have no idea how device registration may work.